Bone graft treatment for dental applications include mandibular and maxillary ridge augmentations as well as tooth socket obliteration. Empty tooth sockets of various dimensions and shapes are left behind following tooth extraction. If left untreated, the socket fills with blood clot and granulation tissue. In a manner of months, this material is replaced with regenerating bone. Unfortunately, infections during this healing process are common due to the generally contaminated field of the dental defect. Treatment options of such defects include packing the socket cavity with an antibiotic or antiseptic impregnated gauze, synthetic or biological materials including bone allografts or xenografts of particulate bone preparations, blocks of cancellous bone or polymer-based materials, and autologous bone grafts and plasma rich platelets. Bone preparations, for example, are frequently mixed with added carrier materials to provide putties, gels, and pastes intended to improve handling characteristics of the particulate bone. More recently, demineralized cancellous bone preparations characterized by spongy graft materials have been used. The above treatment options take time to heal. Accordingly, if a tooth implant is to be used, the above treatment options must be given time to heal prior to implantation of the tooth implant.
It would be desirable to completely obliterate an empty tooth socket with rapidly healing material that could retain a stem of a tooth implant and that would secure itself by osteointegration. It would similarly be desirable to improve bone graft treatment materials for mandibular and maxillary ridge augmentation.